ALFA

A new report based on 2011 data takes an in-depth look at salaries and benefits for a variety of positions in assisted living communities across the country. The report found an overall increase in salaries for senior living professionals, with some positions seeing a greater increase than others.

The study surveyed over 1,700 for-profit and not-for profit assisted living communities, which provided salary and benefit data on almost 65,000 employees. The report summarizes data on 19 management positions and 27 nursing, dietary, and clerical positions as well as 18 fringe benefits.

 All management professions and most other assisted living professions saw a salary bump in 2011. Chief financial officers saw the highest increase out of all management positions. CFOs received a salary of 122,226 dollars, a 3.9 percent increase over 2010. Marketing directors also saw a large increase in compensation. Although marketing directors only saw a salary increase of 2.05 percent, their average bonus was 9,354 dollars or 20 percent of their annual salary. 2010’s average bonus was only 14.64 percent of that year’s average salary.

The data also revealed an average salary increase of 3.3 percent, to 141,847 dollars, for CEOs and an average salary increase of 2 percent, to 65,251 dollars, for directors of nursing.

To purchase the report: 2011-2012 Assisted Living Salary & Benefits Report, visit the Hospital & Healthcare Compensation Service’s website.

Omaha, NE (PRWEB) January 24, 2012

As part of its ongoing series of webinars on hot topics in the bioethics field, Creighton University will host a complimentary webinar titled “No Place for Dying: Hospitals and the Ideology of Rescue.” The webinar will be presented by Helen Stanton Chapple, PhD, RN, MA, CT, a Creighton faculty member who teaches in the online Master of Science in Health Care Ethics program. Chapple is also a past president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC) and current chair of the ADEC Credentialing Council.

Chapple will discuss the idea that many end-of-life dilemmas in the United States are a result of conflicts in American ideology rather than a question of ethics. In addition, the proliferation of advanced technology, the respect for choice, and the need to provide equal opportunity for death avoidance has led to a “rescue first, ask questions later” mentality. Yet often there comes a point where clinicians must work to limit suffering and prepare for death. In her research on treatment for the dying, Chapple discovered that clinicians turned to a “ritual of intensification” that allowed seriously ill patients to be moved from “rescuable” to “non-rescuable” status. This process helped medical professionals to navigate potential conflicts and guilt.

“The ritual preserves belief in the project of medicine,” said Chapple. “Clinicians use ritual to separate the living from the dying, and ultimately the dying from ourselves.”

Date, time, and registration information for the webinar are as follows:

TITLE: “No Place for Dying: Hospitals and the Ideology of Rescue.”

DATE: Monday, February 27, 2012

TIME: 6:30 PM CST

Click here to register

The webinar series is designed to inform medical professionals and others who deal with ethical issues in health care about trends and ideas in the field, as well as to promote Creighton’s Master of Science in Health Care Ethics program. Offered in the convenient online format, the online program pulls from such diverse areas as history, culture, philosophy, politics, economics, and law to explore the meaning, history, context, and implications of bioethics. With courses in Health Policy, the Law and Health Care Ethics, Social & Cultural Contexts of Health Care, Theories of Justice, and Public Heath Ethics, students build their awareness and understanding of the meaning, impact, and practical applications of ethics in the real world. Offered through Creighton’s Center for Health Policy and Ethics (CHPE), the program is built upon the University’s core Catholic and Jesuit values of conscience, compassion, and concern for poor and marginalized groups and individuals.

To learn more about upcoming events at Creighton, go to the Upcoming Events page. To learn more about the webinar series, contact Allison Anderson at the phone number or email provided.

About Creighton University

Creighton University, a Catholic, Jesuit institution located in Omaha, Neb., enrolls more than 4,200 undergraduate and 3,500 professional school and graduate students. Nationally recognized for providing a balanced educational experience, the University offers a rigorous academic agenda with a broad range of disciplines, providing undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs that emphasize educating the whole person: academically, socially and spiritually. Creighton has been a top-ranked Midwestern university in the college edition of US News & World Report magazine for more than 20 years. For more information, visit our website at http://www.creighton.edu.

medicalnewstoday.com January 17, 2012

Yale School of Medicine researchers have found that the likelihood of becoming disabled with age increases with the following factors: having a chronic condition or cognitive impairment; low physical activity; slower gross motor coordination; having poor lower-extremity function; and being hospitalized. Women are also more likely than men to become disabled in their later years.

Based on 12 years of data, the findings are published in the Jan.17 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine by a research team led by Thomas Gill, M.D., the Humana Foundation Professor of Geriatric Medicine and professor of medicine, epidemiology, and public health at Yale School of Medicine.

With age, many people can no longer walk short distances or drive a car, and those with long-term loss of mobility have difficulty regaining independence.

“Losing the ability to walk independently not only leads to a poorer overall quality of life, but prolonged disability leads to higher rates of illness, death, depression and social isolation,” said Gill, who followed a group of 641 people aged 70 or older who could walk a quarter mile unassisted or who were active drivers at the start of the study. All participants could perform essential activities of daily living, such as bathing and dressing.

Gill and his team assessed the participants for changes in potential disability risk factors every 18 months between 1998 and 2008. They also assessed the participants’ mobility each month. Those who said they needed help from another person to walk a quarter mile were considered to be walking disabled. Those who said that they had not driven a car during the past month were considered driving disabled.

On a monthly basis, the research team also assessed the participants’ exposure to potential causes of disability, including illnesses or injuries leading to hospitalization and restricted activity, which increased the likelihood of long-term disability by 6-fold.

The team found that multiple risk factors, together with subsequent illness and injury leading to hospitalization and restricted activity, are associated with an increased likelihood of developing long-term walking and driving disability. The team considered a disability to be long term if it persisted for at least six months.

“We’ve learned that targeted strategies are needed to prevent disability among older people living independently in the community,” said Gill.